


negotiation is not my strong suit...

by bokutoma



Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Developing Relationship, Gen, Reflection, Trust, platonic or romantic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:48:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28210104
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bokutoma/pseuds/bokutoma
Summary: before regna ferox, the shepherds take some time to plan. frederick uses it to ponder the mystery that is their new tactician
Relationships: Frederick & My Unit | Reflet | Robin, can be read as romantic - Relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 9





	negotiation is not my strong suit...

**Author's Note:**

> this was for the scores of heroes zine! a very fun time all around <33

The air is freezing this far north; if Frederick hadn’t packed quite so many blankets, the company would be in poor shape. To watch Chrom make an attempt at practicing what he’ll say to the khans of Regna Ferox, though, one would think they already are.

Through it all, Robin watches. Through it all, Frederick watches  _ her _ . 

It isn’t that Robin hasn’t shown herself to be a good person, no matter what Chrom and Lissa accuse him of thinking. He isn’t  _ blind,  _ after all. From what little Frederick knows and has seen, she’s more than demonstrated strong morals and the same desire to help as His Highness. Even on that first day, when she awoke bleary and confused, she had no qualms about running into battle alongside them, even if, as she claims, she had no memory of herself or what she could do. She has their backs and has never once faltered.

Perhaps that’s what makes her so alarming.

He has trained with her a few times during their short stop in Ylisstol, as per Chrom’s request. After all, if she is to be an ally, then it makes sense for him to hone her as best he can.  _ Shoddy  _ might not have been the right word for her form when they started– she’s proven herself to be lethal already, after all– but by the time they’ve finished, she’s become nigh on unstoppable. Despite this improvement, he expects, at most, a word of thanks in exchange. After all, he hasn’t exactly been  _ warm  _ to her.

Instead, she puts herself in his debt, offering to return a favor he hadn’t even thought twice about giving.

So it isn’t as though he  _ dislikes  _ her, per se. It’s just that Chrom is softhearted. Frederick loves that about him– it’s what differentiates him and Emmeryn from their father– but he can’t afford to be when his lord and his country rely so heavily on him. He knows some might find his methods a little much, but he can’t afford to give Ylisse’s hope anything but the best care.

He isn’t blind, no, but what do the words of others and the suffering of his reputation as anything more than a golem fit to serve every need matter in comparison to building the country that each and every member of this party desires?

Watching Robin pore over dense Feroxi texts like they’re the difference between life and death, it’s difficult to remember she hasn’t always been a part of the Shepherds. Despite this sense of rightness, though, there’s still no denying how odd it is that there’s still no explanation for how she could know Chrom before herself. Even  _ he  _ wants to believe in coincidence when it comes to this, but…

No matter how kind she may seem to be or how invaluable Chrom finds her aid, he can’t help but wonder when she will be unmasked, when the charmingly naive yet somehow cunning tactician will turn her wits upon them. He wonders if it will hurt even him when she does.

Still, to ignore what she does now, less than a day away from the northern border, would be uncharacteristically unfair of him. None of them are well-versed in the diplomatic tongue of Regna Ferox, so to witness Robin coach Chrom, who has always been direct at best, through the finer points even as she herself struggles through the customs is nothing short of awe-inspiring. Even Emmeryn has never been able to convince him to sit still this long, after all.

With this in mind, even he is not so cold as to deny the evidence that suggests she may well and truly be on their side.

He knows what he must do, then, in the name of fairness and yielding to the direction of his liege. If circumstances allow it, he will do his best to follow in Chrom’s footsteps and befriend her with as few ulterior motives as a man in his position can manage. Whether she turns out to be a Plegian spy or not, it will only benefit Ylisse and himself to grow closer to her.

In all honesty, looking at the way she and Chrom so easily manage to make even this stressful mission fun, he hopes that his natural suspicions are wrong. He thinks he might like to have a true companion, one he can be on equal footing with.

“Frederick! Hey, Frederick!”

At the sound of his name, he snaps out of the daze he had not known himself to be in to see Robin waving him over, a smile on her face. “Yes?”

She refuses to say another word until he’s come right next to her; quicker than he would have believed possible for the woman who complained about training just a short time ago, she yanks him down beside her until they’re both sitting, facing Chrom as he paces back and forth, a furrow in his brow.

“Come give His Lordliness some tips,” she says, a grin on her face as Chrom snorts and shakes his head. “I trust your objective opinion more than either of ours at this point.”

He smiles back. “I am at your service,” he says, and means it.

**Author's Note:**

> twitter: @kingblaiddyd


End file.
